What Nonsense
by Ratiqu
Summary: Ichigo's death from Ulquiorra's PoV.


Edit and re-upload of my first written work, True Despair, to bring it up to my standards in anticipation of further writing progress. Enjoy.

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"Why won't you drop your sword?" The moonlight played across his blood-drenched features. Gasping desperately, his body hung otherwise lifeless in my grip. "You have witnessed the great difference in our power, yet you still think you can defeat me?"

"Difference….in power…?" He coughed raggedly, corner of his mouth twitching. "So what?" His gaze fell to meet mine, one eye slightly bloodshot but the will to fight still glowing there. "Do you think that I'll give up...if you're stronger than me…?"

That surprised me. Yes. Yes, I did think you would give up. Why would you _not_ give up? Why would you fight the inevitable?

"I knew that you were strong...right from the start…" Another hacking cough before he continued more strongly. "Showing off your strength now...won't change a damn thing…I'm gonna beat you, Ulquiorra."

That explains it. He's delusional.

I let him fall to his knees. "What nonsense. Kurosaki Ichigo, your words…" I stepped back, reaching into the very core of my soul. "...are the words of a man who does not know true despair." The transformation was, again, exhilarating. I could _feel_ the power rippling off me, enough to disintegrate the remnants of my Resurreccion. Enough that I could see Kurosaki appear to dim as the area around us darkened. Far more gratifying was the look of shock on his face as I could see the terror sinking in. "Since you do not, I will enlighten you." Midnight fur erupted across my extremities as a tail burst from my back. A desperate pulsing echoed briefly in my Hollow hole as it began to seep ichor.

"This is the form of true despair."

His stupefied expression held for only a moment longer before breaking again into determination, though all traces of that dark humor had vanished, at least. It was unfathomable, this unbreakable spirit. I could feel his soul fluttering like a leaf before the tempest that was my Segunda Etapa; his blade was trembling in his hands the same way as he slowly brought it to bear. The man could barely stand up and could feel the terror down to his very bones, but still he raised his sword as if he could survive?

My eyes narrowed. "Very well." I crouched, coiling like a spring. "I will grind your body to dust if that's what it takes…" Or like a viper. "To make you understand."

I leapt. He tried to react. Almost leisurely, I grabbed the back of his head and threw him. Hurtling through the darkness, he plowed into another of the five pillars dotting Las Noches' dome. As I descended into the clearing dust, he managed to raise his sword in time to stop my hand before his face. He didn't see the tail, however, until it collided spectacularly with his skull, launching him careening once again into space.

Coming up behind him, a flash of white caught my attention. He'd somehow managed to pull that strange mask on again, the one which gave him power so like a Hollow. "You're a fool," I declared, pulling alongside him as he began to slow, teetering at the apex of his flight. "You hope to defeat an opponent whose strength is so great it terrifies you." The distance between us vanished. "It's incomprehensible," I hissed, and smashed the fool thing off his face.

He'd landed in what had been possibly the only undamaged pillar remaining, though it clearly no longer held that title. I dropped into the rubble and stalked towards him as he staggered to his feet. "If you do this because of what humans call a 'heart,' then it is because of that heart that you are injured. And it is because of that heart that you will lose your life."

"I'm not...fighting you because I think I can win…" He paused, gasping once more. He was so drenched in blood as to be nearly unrecognizable; his eyes were the only unmistakable part of his face. "I'm fighting...because I _have_ to win." A note of desperation had entered his voice, but his eyes continued to glare with the same unbending spirit they'd always had.

"What nonsense."

It appeared some people could not be convinced. Could not be broken from their delusions. It was time to shatter his completely.

In an instant, he was three feet off the ground, my tail coiled around his neck. I placed a talon against his chest, centered just beneath his collarbone. I focused my power there, let it build. And released, ignoring the burst that lightly spattered my arm.

The man had a hole just like mine, now.

The corpse slipped from my grasp. I let it fall to the rooftop far, far below.


End file.
